Friday, January 16, 2009

Life Links 1/16/09

Yesterday, President Bush declared January 18, 2009, to be National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2009. Here's the official proclamation.

The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women. On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.

Planned Parenthood along with the attorney generals of seven states are suing the federal government to stop the application of the Bush administration's conscience rules.

The Dallas Morning News has an article on Catholic teens who are working to start prolife groups at their public high schools.

The HFEA which issued these licences has the extraordinary record of never having ultimately refused a research licence in all its 20 years. Is there any bank that has never refused a loan? or any examination board that has never failed a student? If an institution never says "no" then one suspects that it not exercising adequate critical judgement.

The grandiose claims for cures from animal-human hybrids were never credible and now they can be seen to be empty promises. It can no longer be pretended that this avenue of research is "necessary". The international scientific community clearly do not think so. In light of this, the regulator must learn to say "no" to further animal-human experiments. These experiments do not deserve taxpayers' money or statutory licences. There is widespread agreement that the future of stem cell research lies elsewhere – with reprogrammed adult cells and with adult stem cells. The world is moving on to science that is both more exciting and more ethical. It is time to pack up this bizarre little sideshow and rejoin the rest of the world.